Dissertation on Conference Centre Process

Members of Nanimo’s business community who actively promoted the development of our Conference Centre and those who remember the Friends of Plan Nanaimo’s (FPN’s) opposition concerning it may recall the visits of Lisa Sailor to our City a few years ago to study the community processes involved in that struggle will be interested to know that her work is now available. Lisa did some extensive work on the background to the issue which led to a close, but successful, referendum on the matter and interviewed a number of people on both sides of argument. While a cursory overview of the document has indicated some holes, it remains an interesting piece of history from which we may all hopefully learn.

We look forward to a lively discussion of her take on this significant project in Nanaimo’s development and the extent to which the posturings of either the boosters or the nay-sayers have come to pass.

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I was one of Lisa Sailor’s interviewees: my, what a great job she has done.

What was the vote now . . . 49/50% for VICC?

FPN did a fine job and had they teamed up with the hotels, also against, the result may have been different.

Still, even if the vote had gone overwhelmingly the other way, council would have gone ahead: that is the nature of arrogant old fools led by the nose by a pack of inept, albeit ambitious, control freaks. There isn’t a grain of creative energy among the lot of ‘em!

City hall is inert to anything and anything it has not conjured up. Tourism is a last resort. Tourism! And there lies the problem: everybody’s doing it!

Main Street was ignored. It strongly recommended development of interesting tourism infrastructure first, which Nanaimo lacks even to this day.

The last scheduled cruise ship docked at our new pier: it was almost empty. The few that did come ashore bussed off to Cathedral Grove and Chemainus. The estimated C$200G drop that each visit would leave behind is either wishful thinquing or nasty manipulation.

After the failures, VICC being but one, after an economy in distress, council still has the impertinence to try for a pay raise!

There seems to be no end to the hubris of these palpitating organisms.

Roger: The tide in favour of the VICC had turned and was rapidly receeding. If the City had followed the rules and run the referendum as required, it would have been held several weeks later than it was as the Province approved the referendum question and would, I believe, have failed. It was an illegal referendum which was later made legal by an Act of the legislature.

While there were businesses opposed, and especially some of our hoteliers, they would not risk coming out of the closet and were therefore of virtually no assistance.